Searching for mammals in the mountains of Papua New Guinea

The New Guinea region is known for being one of the most species-rich places in the world. Located north of Australia and south-east of Asia, New Guinea’s topographical complexity and geographic isolation has given rise to a huge diversity of life, much of it endemic. The island is home to at least 40 small mammal species found nowhere else on earth. However, small mammals in this region are not extensively monitored and we know little about their ranges, population statuses and threats.

Daniel Solomon Okena is a Papua New Guinean researcher affiliated with the University of South Bohemia and the Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences. Daniel’s PhD project aims to improve knowledge of the island’s mammal life by surveying non-volant mammal communities along an elevational gradient in Huon Peninsula, north-eastern Papua New Guinea.

Daniel has already sampled a range of sites up to an incredible 3,700 m in elevation. Working in a range of habitats including dense lowland forest, montane cloud forest and alpine grasslands, Daniel and his team use survey methods such as Elliott and pitfall trapping, as well as interviews with local hunters. Sometimes, hunters are willing to share skulls and other objects with the team which help to build an understanding of where certain species are found.

Although conducting research in these remote mountain sites comes with the obvious challenges of accessing steep and dangerous bush tracks, Daniel is undeterred. He says: “Just being out there in the field camp is so amazing. You get to enjoy nature. But when you start to see mammals up close from traps and hunters, the adrenaline reaches another level.”

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